Honey extractor



Feb. 17, 1931. H, ROOT 7 1,792,871

' HONEY EXTRACTOR Filed Sept. 9, 1927 great strains resulting from centrifugal force scape of the appended claims. 53

Patented Feb. 17, 1931 UNITED j STATES.

HuBER noo'r, oravrnniim, 01m, ASSIGNOR TO THE? a. I. noo'r COMPANY, or

MEDINA, OHIG, A CORPORATION OF OHIO HONEY EXTRACTOR Application filed September My invention relates to centrifugal honey extractors; The object of the invention generally stated isto achieve aconstruction which will be very strong, having reference to the on the heavy honey and yet which will make for economy in manufacture, and to save work or l'aborin operation, at the same time increasing'speed of out-put, by diminishing need for-stopping the machine for cleaning,

or to remove cappings and. foreign material which obstruct or clog the strainer elements of the machine, and to achieve other important practical advantages which will be understood and appreciated by those skilled inthe art, even without pointing them out.

Myiinvention consists in whatever is described by or is included within the terms In the drawings: s r F 1g. 1 is a perspective view with parts broken arm --o-f atwo-frame reversible era tracter embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 1s a similar view of one of the 25; oockets that forms a part of the'machine shownin Fig. 1. v a

Fig 3. is a detail viewin-section, of the lower portion of the apparatus} Briefly described, the embodiment of my invention shownin the drawings comprises an external metal tank or container of usual construction,-a reel mounted to revolve at a rapid rate of speed on the vertical axis in the'tank, two reversible comb pockets pivoted Within the reel to swing to present op-i posite sides of the comb alternately outermost, the reel being a hollow cylinder or drum whose vertical side walls and bottom are of perforated sheet metal, and the side walls of the pockets being similarly of per:

orated sheet metal, and a removable lining for the reel of some coarsely woven fabric such as as cheesecloth which constitutes a strainer, the cloth interstices being much smaller than the holes which form the perforations of the reel, and therefore, constituting a strainer of great eficiency. The perforated wall of the reel, of course, constitutes the support for the cheesecloth or other coarsely woven fabric when the cheese- 9, rear. rs eri i Il'o. 218,503.

cloth is subjected to the'very great outward pressure of the honey against'it from centrifugal force, and the same high degree centrifugal forcewhich. precludes the useof such a strainer, as cheesecloth, alone or by itself, renders the u'se of the cheesecloth 'straiir most advantageous, because such centrifugal force drives the honey through it; under conditions which in the use of a cheese cloth strainer under simplegravitational flow of the honey would clog the holes or interstices and result in; the necessity for frequent cleanings; Since the c'heeseclethv strainer will continue to operate under C8H- trifugal force for a long; period of time without such ciog ing occurrmg as compels suspension ofwork for cleaning, it willbe seen mportant economies in labor of operation are secured and volume.

of work done in a given tune, increased;

The employment of perforated sheet metal,

and having reference more particularly to its I employmentin the comb'pockets, overcomes important manufacturing draw-backs and drawbacks in handling in the operation of the extractor whichcharacterize the use of wire clothfwhich has generally beenused.

Wire cloth, becauseof: its lack of rigidity necessarily due to'the CLOSSLWHEB arrangement to form the vmesh, necessitates'the use of many heavy or strong braces along the sides of thepocket which, of course, adds to. cost of manufacture; 1 In placing combs 1n the pockets the operator unavoidably allows them to drop 'intoz the: pocketssince his fingers, being slippery with honey, cannot prevent: that-,- ancas t'QQllllliLlS quite: l-iearry', weighing six or seven pounds, the blow of the dropping.

mew, OFFl-CE b the extractor shown is of the two-frame reversible type and as the present invention is not concerned with the reel rotating and the pocket reversing mechanism, it is unnecessary to describe the same because it is of a construction known in the art, and so it is necessary merely to state the the external can or tank, 10, is of usual construction with a honey outlet or gate at the bottom, and within it is mounted to revolve on a vertical axis, which includes a bearing on the bottom of the tank, a reel which is a cylindrical shell or drum, 11, of perforated sheet metal, the perforations in the side wall establishing communication between the interior of the reel and the space in the tank around the reel for the outflow of honey by centrifugal force. The reel, preferably, has a bottom, 12, also of perforated sheet metal. lVithin the reel and lying gainst the sides and bottom thereof is a bag, 13, of coarsely woven fabric, such as cheesecloth, with interstices of a size to allow the passage of honey but not permitting the pasage of pieces of cappings even though they may be small bits and offoreign material which may be on the honey comb placed in each of the pockets, 14, mounted within the reel and pivoted at one side and eccentric to the reel so that they may swing as usual in the reversing operation, the side walls of the bag being, of course, between the pockets and the reel-wall. The bottom of the bag lies on the perforated bottom of the reel. The pockets are as usual open at the top so that a frame of uncapped honey may be placed therein by sliding from the top and the frame with the empty comb removed by lifting from the top of the pocket. The pocket walls are of perforated sheet metal.

It will be at once evident that the extractor having the reel and comb pockets of the construction described and with the strainer cloth, is of simple, and economical construction, has strength and rigidity which renders it well-nigh indestructible as to the members subjected to the greatest wear and strain, and ishighly efiiicent in that the honey is sufficiently freed from bits or scraps of wax and foreign material as to require no further straining. So efficient is the straining action by the reel-supported strainer cloth, that honey requiring to be strained-honey such as comes from other types of extractors which needs further strainingmay be strained by the use of an apparatus having the reel-wallsupported strainer cloth.

By reason of the possibility of causing the honey by centrifugal force to pass through the strainer cloth under conditions which would result in clogging the strainer cloth in the absence of such force, machines embodying my invention may run for a long period, say for several days before the cloth becomes so clogged that it needs to be removed and cleaned.

Because of the greater area of the perforated sheet metal surfaces in contact with the comb compared with the wire screen or woven wire construction, it is possible to rotate the extractor at a higher rate of speed and that contributes to the eificiency and speed of the straining action by the reel sides under centrifugal force. In extracting under temperature conditions which soften the wax of the combs the softened comb under high speed operation will embed itself in wire screen pocket sides and will stick or cling thereto so that when the comb is removed parts are broken off and thus comb cells will be damaged with the result that when the extracted comb is replaced in a hive the bees in accordance with their practice will refill the broken out parts with drone cells, which, of course, is undesirable because it is the intention that the cells of the replaced comb shall be again filled with honey. Thus, under conditions which would limit the speed of rotation where wire is used for the pocket walls an extractor embodying my construction can be run at a high speed, and another factor contrilmting to the possibility of high speed is the greater strength and rigidity of the pockets.

I claim:

1. A centrifugal honey extractor comprising a reel, having a side wall with perforations, a reversible comb pocket within the reel a d strainer cloth situated between the comb pocket and the inside surface of the reelwall.

2. A centrifugal honey extractor comprising a reel, having a side wall with perforations, a reversible comb pocket within the reel and strainer cloth situated between the comb pocket and the inside surface of the reelwall, the reel-wall and the pocket walls being of perforated sheet metal.

3. A. centrifugal honey extractor having a reel with a wall of perforated sheet metal and a reversible comb pocket within the reel, hav ing side walls also of perforated sheet metal.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aiiix my signature.

HUBER H. ROOT. 

